Kate Gilbert reports live from London Fashion Week spring summer 2008
It’s been quite a year for Christopher Kane. The young Scottish designer has gone from humble fashion student to international designer superstar in two collections. Having completed his MA at Central Saint Martins in 2006, his graduate collection rocketed him into fame, with those skin tight neon mini dresses (sponsored by Donatella Versace no less, who he now consults for). After this blinding success, Kane went on to produce another acclaimed collection for A/W 07; using crushed velvet, leather and circular skirts, adorned with Swarovski crystals. So as you can imagine, the excitement surrounding his third solo collection was immense and I’m sure Kane probably felt the pressure. This season however, he decided to prove he is not one for resting on his laurels, and so took a step away from his strong signature style and took this collection in an entirely different direction.
Having previously used hard shapes, strong lines and an exposing short hem line; this season, Kane went girly, frilly and covered up his models with long, floaty dresses. Taking his inspiration from films he used to watch as a teenager, such as ‘Crocodile Dundee’ and ‘Carrie’, he then applied this in the use of ripped, stonewashed denim in crop tops and jeans and also the snake skin print used in tight trousers, shirts and dresses. Cowboy shirts, camouflage print and the pale colour palette were also key to the collection.
Aside from this, what created the most fuss was the long, tiered, floaty dresses and frou-frou skirts that made up the majority of the show; this is such a stark detachment from his previous collections that it made it feel like we had all ended up in the wrong show. The dresses in themselves were really quite beautiful; nice shapes, very flattering and most importantly, I would like a couple of them in my wardrobe.
However, the questions this collection raised, such as what is the future for Christopher Kane and where will he go from here, made the audience feel almost unnerved. All in all, the collection was probably not as cutting edge as we’d have hoped for and was a little unexpected; nevertheless well-rounded and wearable.
This collection is almost the exact opposite of everything Christopher Kane has done so far that has set him apart from the crowd. This ruffley-tiered collection is a little bland and I don’t think it’s were fashion is going. But who knows, perhaps Kane can help change that.